Family Court judgments 2023

Warwickshire County Council v A Mother and A Father and X and Z [2023] EWHC 399 (Fam)

Judge: Nathalie Lieven

Expert: Trish Barry-Relph

Julie Doughty, Transparency Project blog: ‘Somewhere in the history of this case we have lost our humanity’

This appeal follows on from:

Warwickshire County Council v the Mother & ors [2022] EWHC 2146 (Fam)

(and on Bailii with citations)

Judge: Nathalie Lieven

Expert: Trish Barry-Relph

Julie Doughty, Transparency Project blog:

‘Choosing the course which is less stressful to the child’

[2023] EWFC 85

8 March 2023

Judge: Richard Pates

Experts: Rasha Ravenscroft and Christopher Fear

Clinical psychologist Rasha Ravenscroft found that the girl had made false allegations of sexual abuse against her father, encouraged by her mother. She was removed into foster care.

[2023] EWHC 680 (Fam)

28 March 2023

Judge: Stephen Cobb

Father’s appeal against indirect contact order refused, and his claim that mother had turned his daughter against him were not entertained.

[2023] EWCA Civ 706

Court of Appeal judges: Eleanor King, Sarah Asplin, Jonathan Baker

Father in UK charged with rape made party to child’s care proceedings: Court of appeal overrules decision to exclude man who allegedly conceived the boy with his niece through rape, Hannah Summers, Guardian, 25 June 2023

Note: Sarah Asplin succeeded Sir Andrew McFarlane as Chair of the Clergy Discipline Commission on 7 January 2019.

[2023] EWFC 150

Re GB (Part 25 Application: Parental Alienation) [2023] EWFC 150

30 August 2023

Judge: Middleton Roy

Expert: Dr Elena Arora (misspelt in the judgment as Aurora)

Charlotte Proudman successfully argued that a parental alienation expert should not have been instructed.

Judge Middleton-Roy anonymised the lower judge. Journalist Louise Tickle tweeted: “This is really irritating me. I am now going to have to make an an application to the judge who allowed this appeal to allow the name of the lower court judge to be published.”

UK mother accused of alienating children from father wins appeal over psychological assessment, Hannah Summers, The Observer, 9 September 2023

Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s Report - ‘The Family Court and domestic abuse: achieving cultural change’: Government Response page 20

Parental Alienation in Re GB, Michelle Uppal, Family Law Week, 11 October 2023

GB (Parental Alienation: Factual Findings) [2024] EWFC 75 (B)

28 March 2024

Judge: His Honour Judge Middleton Roy

The mother was represented by Charlotte Proudman. The father was represented by Mr Hankinson through Dads Unlimited, a registered charity.

Man who raped his wife tried to convince court he was victim of domestic abuse, Hannah Summers, The Oberver, 27 April 2024

Abusive father’s attempts to manipulate family courts, Hannah Summers, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, 27 April 2024

A Mother versus A Father (Costs Following Fact-finding and Removal of Parental Responsibility) [2023] EWFC 105

14 April 2023

Judge: Dexter Kias KC sitting as a Recorder

Reported by Field Court Chambers, whose barristers represented the father pro-bono

A Mother versus A Father (Costs Following Fact-finding and Removal of Parental Responsibility) [2023] EWFC 105

Judge: Dexter Kias

Previously, District Judge Marc Marin “delivered what can only be described as a condemnatory 20‑page judgment.  It was dated 30 April 2018.  He detailed why he found the allegations made by the mother to be wholly without merit and entirely unfounded (see bundle J1‑20).  The non‑molestation order against the father was discharged and a prohibited steps order was made against the mother preventing the child’s removal from the jurisdiction.  The judge directed a psychological assessment of the mother, and also a Section 7 (broadly child welfare) report by Cafcass. The court granted child arrangements orders in respect of C and there was a phased reintroduction of C to her father.  This progressed in the end to unsupervised contact in the community then to contact which was staying contact overnight at his house.  On 31 July 2018, at the dispute resolution appointment, a final child arrangements order was made, and C was ordered to spend four days a week with her mother and three days a week with her father.  This is how things stood for over a year until the triggering incident.”

Dexter Kias removed parental responsibility from the father found to have sexually abused his daughter. The mother was awarded costs for the fact finding hearing, but agreed that the costs order would not be enforced as the father was impecunious.

101. I observe that in the Sentencing Council guidelines on sexual offences, one of the “aggravating factors” is “exploiting contact arrangements with a child to commit an offence”. (See “Other aggravating factors” at https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/crown-court/item/assault-of-a-child-under-13-by-penetration/).

102. I emphasise that I am not making a finding about criminal responsibility.  But court-sanctioned contact arrangements were exploited to abuse a child.  The child’s abuser then repeatedly sought to use a previous court judgment to cover it up.  I have found this to be a particularly egregious case.

[2023] EWFC 163

3 May 2023

Judge: Nassera Patel

Transfer of residence of daughter from father to mother on the grounds of “alienating behaviours” by the father. “Expert” criticised but not named.

This was preceded by [2022] EWFC 204.

KRD v PTL [2023] EWHC 1952 (Fam)

16 June 2023

Mrs Justice Lieven

In January 2023 District Judge Saunders had ordered no direct contact between the father and his three children. The father applied “to relax the provisions of section 12 Administration of Justice Act 1960 (“AJA”) to permit him to disclose information from the proceedings to the world at large” as he claimed he was a victim of parental alienation. His application was denied.

Re V and W (Children: Finding of Fact) [2023] EWFC 233

23 June 2023

Recorder Michael Veal ruled that the mother had coercively controlled the father.

Re V & Anor (Children: Welfare) [2024] EWFC 69 (B)

31 January 2024

On the advice of “an expert psychologist called Dr F” and “Ms G” who produced a child impact report on behalf of Cafcass, Recorder Michael Veal ordered a transfer of residence of the children from the mother to the father. The mother was given only indirect contact with her children plus an order barring further applications for three years.

[2023] IEHC 772

26 June 2023

Judge: John Jordan

The judge rejected the father’s claim that the mother was alienating the oldest child against him and found that the teenager had her own valid reasons, in particular that she was upset about his new marriage.

[2023] EWFC 165

Judge: Philip Moor

Judge found problematic behaviour from both parents but rejected father’s accusation of parental alienation against the mother.

[2022] EWHC 2755 (Fam)

Judge: Sarah Morgan on appeal from Carlisle.

[2023] EWFC 180

Judge: Clive Baker. Reported by Hannah Summers in the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Guardian.

[2020] EWFC B15

6 March 2020

Judge: Joanna Vincent

Expert: Professor Perkin

Mother took her own life and died on 6 February 2019, because of the stress of the proceedings in [2019] B87. Father was coercively controlling and accused the mother of parental alienation. He asked the court to appoint the Family Separation Clinic, but got Professor Perkins again, who understood exactly what he was.

[2023] EWFC 192 Re A and B (No 3)(domestic abuse – no direct contact – s91(14))

Judge: Joanna Vincent

Expert: Professor Perkin

The father was denied direct contact with his children and was given a barring order until the children’s sixteenth birthdays. There was also an order to change the children’s surname from the father’s name to the mother’s name.

Family courts: Children forced into contact with fathers accused of abuse, Ed Thomas, BBC News, 4 September 2023 (Sarah’s story).

[2023] EWHC 345 (Fam) Re C (‘Parental Alienation’; Instruction of Expert)

21 February 2023

Judge: Sir Andrew McFarlane

Expert: Melanie Gill

The President of the Family Division ordered that the parental alienation expert, Melanie Gill, an unregulated psychologist, was fit to work in family court and “deprecated” the conduct of the intervenor, the Association of Clinical Psychologists.

[2023] EWHC 2078 (Fam) The Mother v The Father

14 August 2023

Judge: Sir Andrew McFarlane

Expert: Melanie Gill

McFarlane ordered the mother to pay £26,000 towards the father’s costs plus £20,000 towards Melanie Gill’s costs. He ordered the intervenor, the Association of Clinical Psychologists, to pay £10,000 towards the father’s costs plus £10,000 towards Melanie Gill’s costs.

Intervenor hit with £20,000 costs for acting unreasonably, John Hyde, Law Gazette, 7 November 2023

Psychology body says costs ruling ‘unfair’ in appeal on use of unregulated experts in England and Wales, Hannah Summers, Guardian, 12 November 2023

Alienation and Domestic Abuse- What on Earth is Going On? Darren Howe KC, Fran Wiley KC, Clare Ciborowska, Kirsten Japp, Barristers at 1 Crown Office Row discuss parental alienation and domestic abuse. Family Law Week, 8 March 2024

The London Victims’ Commissioner, Claire Waxman, tweeted:

Psychology body @UK_ACP ordered to pay costs for challenging the use of unregulated experts in the family courts. I agree this may have a “chilling effect” and silence victims who may want to appeal decisions that have been informed by unregulated experts.”

[2023] EWFC 228

29 September 2023

District Judge Lindsey Moan

The father accused the mother of alienating his child, but District Judge Moan found that he was obsessed with denigrating the mother and made a barring order until the child was 16.

Father v Mother [2023] EWFC 265

District Judge Steven Buckley

Fact finding hearing. The father accused the mother of alienating behaviour, but the judge found that he had been domestically abusive.

[2023] EWFC 202

31 October 2023

Judge: Liza Gordon-Saker

The judge rejected the father’s claim that the mother was alienating the children against him, and ordered indirect contact plus a three year barring order.

[2023] EWFC 254

20 December 2023

Judge: Frances Judd

Expert: Melanie Gill

The judge rejected the father’s claim that the mother was alienating the children against him and gave short shrift to Melanie Gill’s evidence.

Reported by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Law Society Gazette on 19 April 2024 and BBC News on 11 December 2024